Archive for May, 2014

Today over at Kirkus, I weigh in on the sounds of summer. That link is here.

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Last week, I wrote about Maira Kalman’s picture book biography of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything (Nancy Paulsen Books, January 2014). That link is here, and I’m following up today with some art from the book.

“I get to visit schools in different parts of the country to read and talk about my books. I see that poor schools in poor neighborhoods are mostly attended by Latino and African American students, while wealthy schools in wealthy neighborhoods are mostly attended by white children. Although Sylvia’s story happened 70 years ago, it is very relevant to children today.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk to author-illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh, pictured here, about his newest picture book, Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation (Abrams, May 2014). That link is here.

Next week, I’ll have some art from the book, as well as some sketches from Duncan.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo of Duncan Tonatiuh used with permission of Abrams Books for Young Readers.

I think many people in the field of children’s lit would agree that author-illustrator Dan Santat is one of the hardest-working people out there. In fact, Minh Le at The Huffington Postsaid as much recently.

I also happen to think he’s one of the most talented. Carolyn Juris at The New York Times notes what I like the best about his work when she described his mixed-media illustrations as “wild-eyed” and looking “as though they could bound right off the page and onto the screen.” That wild energy is part and parcel of what makes his work so intriguing, and there is often a refreshing irreverence for what your typical grown-up thinks a picture book should be. And his comic timing? I think up-and-coming illustrators could learn a lot about such pacing by studying Santat’s illustrated titles.

His newest picture book, just out on shelves, is called The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (Little, Brown). It’s a wildly imaginative story of friendship, tender and restrained. “[W]hile his immense talent was always evident, Beekle takes his artistry to a new level,” Le adds over at The Huffington Post piece. Below, Dan shares artwork from this book, as well as some deleted scenes and rejected covers. Read the rest of this entry �

“And Mama Bear, being a mother, looked at each one of her three little bears,hugged them all very, very tight, kissed the tops of their furry heads,and forgave them. Then she brought them inside for a warm supper.”(Click to enlarge)

Now, wouldn’t this have been the perfect post for Mother’s Day a couple Sundays back? Too bad I always do everything backwards.

This is art from David Soman’s Three Bears in a Boat, released just this past week by Dial Books for Young Readers. I reviewed this for BookPage, so if you want to read all about it, that link is here. I wanted to be sure to follow up with art. My very favorite illustration from the book is below, too.

Illustration from Phyllis Rowand’s It Is Night,illustrated by Laura Dronzek

This morning over at Kirkus, I write about Maira Kalman’s newest picture book, Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything (Nancy Paulsen Books, January 2014). That link is here.

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Last week, I wrote about LeUyen Pham’sA Piece of Cake (Balzer + Bray, May 2014) and Phyllis Rowand’s It Is Night (Greenwillow Books, April 2014), illustrated by Laura Dronzek. (As you may have read in the column, these are new illustrations from Dronzek; the book was originally both written and illustrated by Rowand in 1953.) That column is here, and today I follow up with some art from each book.

LeUyen also sent a few pieces of early digital art for the book, which ended up getting discarded, and I will include below what she wrote about creating the art. (I didn’t have room for all of her comments at the Kirkus piece last week.)

Over at Kirkus last week, I chatted with author-illustrator Jason Chin about his newest picture book, Gravity (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook, April 2014). Today I’m following up with some art from the book, as well as some of the clay models and rejected endings that he mentioned in the column. (Rejected endings! It’s like DVD extras!)

That link is here, if you need a refresher as to what Chin was sharing about the creation of this book.

Final art: “It reappears in La La Land …where the monsters live.”(Click to enlarge)

Here’s a post for illustration lovers: Illustrator Daniel Salmieri is visiting to share some character sketches and dummy sketches (and final art) from Big Bad Bubble (Clarion, May 2014), the newest picture book from him and author Adam Rubin. Remember Dragons Love Tacos (2012), which I posted about here? That was a Rubin-Salmieri collaboration (and there have been others), which I still think is one of the funniest picture books you’ll ever read. Rubin and Salmieri have a distinctive sense of humor, and I was going to say something sweeping about how glad I am that they make picture books today, when I just read this from Publishers Weekly: “Rubin and Salmieri are two of the weirdest, funniest guys working in kids’ lit today.” Yep. That. I agree.

Hi, dear Imps. I’m going to be brief today. I’m actually typing this on Thursday night, since I’m heading out of town to a) see my nephew graduate from high school (I’m already teary-eyed about this, and I’m not even at the ceremony yet), and b) someone I used to babysit is all grown-up and I’m heading to her wedding. (Ditto on the tears.)

So, I’ll be skipping my kicks, though I always enjoy reading yours, so please do share. I do, however, have some art for you.

I’ve previously featured the work of Canadian author-illustrator Marianne Dubuc at 7-Imp — here and here. Her newest book, The Lion and the Bird (Enchanted Lion, May 2014), is a tender and moving story of friendship, first published in French in 2013 and translated by Claudia Z. Bedrick (intrepid leader of Enchanted Lion and possessor of exquisite taste). Maria Popova over at Brain Pickings writes that this book is an “ode to life’s moments between the words.” Oh, how I love that and wish I’d written it. That captures the book well. (You can read her entire post, also art-filled, about the book here, if you’re so inclined. She describes the book so wonderfully.)

The story is about a lion, who lives alone and one day finds a wounded bird. After nursing the bird lovingly, they become friends, and the bird stays on. Their friendship grows, but when Spring comes, Lion knows the bird must fly away. Lion adjusts to his loneliness, and then the following Winter, the bird returns.

But, as Popova notes in her piece, there’s so much to discover in the book’s artwork and the expert pacing of the story. I remember reading once in a theatre text in college that a play is interrupted silence. (I think it was a quote from a French playwright? I really should look this up.) Well, this story is interrupted silence. Dubuc does wonders here, not rushing the story, letting it breathe, inviting in child readers to be with Lion as he adjusts to his loneliness and melancholy after Bird leaves, as time marches on. A lot of the gentle pacing comes from Dubuc’s use of white space. (“White space—sometimes whole pages—speaks its own language of loss and hope,” writes the Kirkus review.) For instance, here’s very simply how we know that Bird has returned:

This morning over at Kirkus, I write about two picture books that caught my eye — LeUyen Pham’sA Piece of Cake (Balzer + Bray, May 2014) and Phyllis Rowand’s It Is Night (Greenwillow Books, April 2014), illustrated by Laura Dronzek.

Last week, I wrote about Chris Raschka’s new picture book biography, The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra: The Sound of Joy Is Enlightening (Candlewick, May 2014). That link is here, and I’m following up with a bit of art today.

“These paintings were done in watercolor and gouache, and let me tell you gouache can be really frustrating. It was really temperamental, and to be honest, when I handed in the book, I swore I’d never use it again. Of course, for my next book I pulled out the gouache and used it again.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk to Jason Chin, pictured here, about his newest picture book, Gravity (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook, April 2014). That link is here.

Next week, I’ll have some art from the book, as well as some of the rejected endings that Jason talks about in the piece.